How do you select servers?

Hi all,

I am running a handfull of MNC servers, and wanted to ask all you players how you decide what servers to play on?

Currently I am running one with default rules, one hourlong with no hazards, no juice, no OT and a 1 player limit on assassins and snipers, and two 25 minutes with the same restrictions. (And just for good measure, a Blitz server also)

But, I haven't really been able to see a clear pattern in where people play, so, do you look for special rulesets, or are you just interested in where there currently are players? (The servers are set at 2 players to start, and, it is my general opinion that when two players have joined, and the game has started, the server tends to fill up quite fast)

Ofcourse, I would like as many players on the servers as possible, so, if anyone would be willing to share the criteria you use for joining, it would make it easier for me setup the servers for maximum player enjoyment.

And, just to be clear, I am not looking to cater to you individually, so begging for "Your Perfect Setup" will not help any, but I would very much like a general opinion from the community as a whole

sort by ping, look for something with just a few open slots

I avoid "no juice buying" servers when I remember to

Sort by ping, look for 3-4 slots open.

It's not something you can really do anything about, but if any server had a good sense of community... or hell, even people using the damn microphone, I'd play on it more often. I've yet to find one.

Sort by ping, look for active servers. 8 people is the sweet spot, but I won't shy away from playing all by myself.

I'd prefer default server settings, but I'm not very strict about that, either.

Filter out full and empty, whichever server I have the best ping on which has all hazards enabled. No hazards takes a lot of strategy out of the game.

I just join low pings, i sometimes check the rules. Class limit of 2 is fine for me. 1 for sniper and assassin isn't a deal breaker.

But mainly it needs to have 6+ players

#1: Ping
Number of players: 6+
Juice/OT/BotBuying/Hazards/MatchLength: Whatever
Class limits: 2-6, usually 2-3(gets annoying when the other team has 4 sins)

I think the more you stick with the default rules the better. One hour long matches can be quite fun, but without juice or hazards they can basically never end. Everybody can replace a L3 Rockit almost instantly after a while.

A good idea might be to set up a server without team selection and with autobalancing. A lot of players just want to play in random teams and team selection can become ridiculous sometimes. I have seen whole lobbies switching colors several times... :roll:

PS: Class limits are fine.

So, ping is most important (makes good sense, too), and as I kind of anticipated, the rest is just accepted, as you go where the players are.

Makes sense in a way, if you just want to get into the action as fast as possible.

So, seems like there's not much a server op can do, other than hope for players that are close to the server, so I think i'll just leave my servers as is for the moment, as there are plenty vanilla servers outthere, and I like playing with a tweaked ruleset.

And yes, hourlong can drag out, but, if you can get on a team where a couple of players actually plays MNC, and not just DM in MNC, then they wont

I tend to go back to servers with juice buying though, if it doesn't have juice I never return, because it drags on too long.

Yup, it's possible but way harder without hazards and juice. I don't buy juice very often but sometimes it's necessary to break a stalemate.

Right now, all servers are pretty much seen as commodities. Even if you have different rulesets, most people probably don't care yet, and just join based on ping and players.

As time goes on and people start to realize that they prefer and dislike certain rulesets, that may start to change. Stock servers will remain commodities, but customized servers like hour-longs or highlanders might start to attract regulars who like those specific rules.


Hourlong with no juice buying sounds like an absolute disaster to me, though!

Actually, I haven't played on it yet, a member of the community suggested that we setup an hourlong, and I just took the rules from our 25 minutes, and made it last for an hour.

It might be that juice should be enabled on that one, will look into it.

One trick I've seen is for the "best" player of the match to pick one color, wait for every other dingbat to pick the same(which results in 8-10 out of 12 picking that color) then changing to the other side at the last second

One thing that's been bugging me was two games where OT was disabled
Blue lost both games which was odd for one as it looked like the Blue team had accumulated more cash than Red

I just pick a server with good ping and a few slots open. As soon as I find out it's some hour long/no juice buying server I get the hell out.

The HUGE HUGE HUGE HUGE Problem I have with hour long matches is that right now the game stalemates more often than it doesn't, and after a while both teams have maxed all their skills and just dump their money into lvl 3 Rock-Its and I don't know about you guys but even if my team also has a forest I don't like going up against a forest of 3.3s. Every hourlong game I've played ended with me just not caring about my life anymore and rushing the moneyball to end the damn match. Or just sitting in spawn taunting.

I like 20-30 min. Gives time for teams to play it out without dragging it out.
Hazards +
Juice indifferent.
Class restrictions +-2. 1 can be harsh when you're the last to choose. 2-3 gives some semblance of forcing a choice and not stacking one class.
Random teams. pub servers for pubs.

Sort by slots open, find ones with 2-3 slots open so I can get in. Has to be sub 250 or I won't play on it.

I'll typically play on any server for a complete round, but if hazards are disabled/the rules aren't default (other than time), I'll switch.

As it stands connection comes before all else. When I'm lucky just to get a single server below 100 ping, I can't be picky-choosy with rules.

Being the one who on and off has influenced Flyvehests choice of server setup, allow me to share my thoughts on a few of the comments. :

Juicebuying on 1h servers:
To me that goes more or less completely against the concept. And the argument for it supports it. "It drags out too long without juicebuying".
The whole idea behind the 1h setup was to to give the games the best chance of being settled the way they should be settled. By pushing your bots to the other teams ball. Allowing it to drag out if the teams are well balanced.
I agree that the money stocks at that point means that the loss of a turret can quickly be remedied and that makes it hard to crack the shell at that point. But it has also made the coordinated and well executed team pushes that does accomplish it so much more enjoyable. Even from the losing side I have been able to acknowledge and enjoy that (after a lot of swearing ).

No hazards; "No hazards takes a lot of strategy out of the game."
I would say it takes some tactics out of the game. While rewarding strategy.
I will agree that removal of the ejector pads removes some aspect of the combat, in terms of situational awareness/positioning.
But the annihilator provides very little in terms of strategic or tactical gameplay. The use of it most commonly comes down to the luck of positional timing or an already established dominance. The cost and access has very little prohibitional effect on its use.
When the Annihilator is used best it is basically punishing those who have played the core gameplay the best, by negating a perhaps heavily fought and accomplished bot push. Essentially a shortcut removing the need for good teamplay. And when used with the least impact it is solely to prevent it being used for the above purpose.

Which is why we have removed it on some of the servers.

If the ejector pads and the annihilator can be separated, I might advocate the the pads be left in on those configurations for the above discussed reasons. I say "might", because they do share some of the same shortcut characteristics as the Annihilator - that I find counterproductive to promoting good teamplay.

Much of the above is also the reasoning behind the removal of juicebuying on some of the servers. It is too powerful a shortcut for too low a price, an instant negation of actual effort.

And for more or less the same reasons as runs through the above we have also disabled Overtime on the specially configured servers. It does not provide a reasonable answer to who was the best team.

Neither does deciding the winner by money count of course(one person leaves and takes his 4k with him and you are done for), but we have to live with that for now.

As you might have deducted from the above, I don't subscribe to the idea that a winner HAS to be found - regardless of the means and how those might actually be related to the gameplay that should have secured you a win if you really deserved one.

If the moneyballs are at an equal state when time runs out, why not call it a draw? (GASP!)